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Satellite Trails in Pixinsight

Processing Deep Sky M42 Messier Objects
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Benjamin DeHaven avatar
Benjamin DeHaven avatar
I am at a loss here. I think I captured a train of starlink satellites on at least two different nights while photographing m42. No matter what I do I keep getting a fuzzy line through my image in the same place. I've tried several rejection algorithms in pixinsight both at stock values and jacked up values, playing with anything that I can. No good. It shows in the rejection maps but still shows in my images. I tried high large scale pixel rejection but no good. I tried to use SKill script to draw black lines over the blinked images but when I save the blinked image as a tiff of pixinsight file I lose my shutter speed duration from my DSLR and can no longer properly stack multiple night sessions. 

Lastly I got desperate and stopped stacking any frame where I could see visible trails in blink but I guess there are more then I can see because I still get the fuzzy band. What else can I do? Do I have to trash my precious data from two or three whole nights?

Thanks
Benjamin
Engaging
GalacticRAVE avatar
GalacticRAVE avatar
no need to trash, is a fixable problem. In particular I don't see the exposure time problem as a given. Which files do you apply SKill to, the original ones ore the calibrated (or even the reduced) ones. Try one of the latter. Alternatively: use median as the combination when stacking - not ideal but certainly helpful as a first fix.

see also the other thread on PI and satellite track that was opened yesterday.

Matthias
DSMelody avatar
DSMelody avatar
Hi
Starlink satellites are truly to some degree annoying. Do you use the ImageIntegration Process to stack the frames? I also encounter with aeroplane  when taking photos, which is similar to satellites trail I think? and the Pixel Rejection seems to work. The settings are below (part of the tutorial of CrazyCat).

And in section Pixel Rejection (2), the Sigma low and Sigma high are both set at 3.00. After stacking, three photos (one integration and the other two are high/low rejection files) are generated and the satellite trail is eliminated. I hope this may help you.

DS
Dark Matters Astrophotography avatar
Dark Matters Astrophotography avatar
Try large scale pixel rejection with more settings. Turn on both low and high. I've seen that remove some serious trails before.
Benjamin DeHaven avatar
Benjamin DeHaven avatar
DSMelody:
Hi
Starlink satellites are truly to some degree annoying. Do you use the ImageIntegration Process to stack the frames? I also encounter with aeroplane  when taking photos, which is similar to satellites trail I think? and the Pixel Rejection seems to work. The settings are below (part of the tutorial of CrazyCat).

And in section Pixel Rejection (2), the Sigma low and Sigma high are both set at 3.00. After stacking, three photos (one integration and the other two are high/low rejection files) are generated and the satellite trail is eliminated. I hope this may help you.

DS



M42 with trail

This is an example of what I still am getting after processing...